A travelling treasure trove from the Benaki Museum

 

January 11, 2014

The Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, is home to Greek art dating from ancient times to the modern day.

In an upstairs office in Melbourne's heritage-listed former Royal Mint, Hellenic Museum CEO John Tatoulis is flicking through the pages of a massive tome of treasures from the Benaki Museum in Athens. "This piece is coming," he says excitedly, pointing out a 2500BC marble Cycladic figurine. "And we are getting that one," he says, pausing at an intricate and priceless gold myrtle wreath.
Tatoulis has good cause to be excited. In a landmark 10-year deal, Melbourne's Hellenic Museum will become the first mini-outpost of Greece's oldest and largest private museum.
In March, the museum will inaugurate Greek Treasures from the Benaki Museum, a stunning snapshot of Hellenic civilisation spanning 8000 years from fifth century BC to mid-19th century AD. There will also be annual mini-blockbusters from the Benaki's vast and eclectic collection, which includes Islamic, Coptic, Byzantine and Chinese art, antique toys and popular folk arts and crafts.

A gold wreath, from the Benaki collections.

The space will also be used for other exhibitions celebrating local Greek-Australian history, art and contemporary culture.

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The initiative is expected to cost more than $5 million, including the refurbishment of the Hellenic Museum's galleries to accommodate the Benaki treasures.
"It's a major undertaking," says Tatoulis, formerly a film and television producer and director who took the helm of the museum in 2012.

Hellenic: A water jar dated 1060BC to 600BC. Photo: Eddie Jim

"We are creating new exhibition spaces and rearranging existing galleries. We have architects and designers looking at museum best practice, security and climate control. It is exciting and groundbreaking. The Benaki's resources are phenomenal."
The timing could not have been better when Tatoulis and museum chairman Harry Stamoulis flew to Athens in November 2012 to put their case to the Benaki.
Like many of Greece's cultural institutions hit by the nation's economic crisis, the Benaki suffered savage cuts in government and private funding forcing the museum to cut staff, reduce operating hours, and find innovative ways to survive - including reaching out to the Greek diaspora.

A red-figure calyx krater from the Benaki collections.

''They were looking at ways to broaden their horizons and raise some income as well,'' Tatoulis says. ''We threw our hat in the ring because Melbourne is as dynamic a cultural centre as New York or London and the connection to Greece is extremely strong. We also had the infrastructure here that, with some work, could provide a venue for a significant collection of Greek antiquities.''
Not surprisingly, the Benaki was ''very keen and very positively inclined'' and the deal was sealed in August last year.
''It's a win-win,'' Tatoulis says. ''They really want to show off who they are and it falls within that whole philosophy of rebranding Greece … there has been so much negativity.''

Cultural coup: a statue of Hermes from the Benaki collections. Photo: Eddie Jim

Benaki director Angelos Delivorrias, who has presided over the museum's remarkable expansion for the past 40 years, is feeling optimistic about the museum's future.
"The Greek government has cut the annual support to the museum considerably, but the museum will survive thanks to our friends both in Greece and abroad," says Delivorrias, who was forced to appeal to Greece's arts benefactors and seek the intervention of the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras (a descendant of the Benaki Museum's founders).
While Greece has traditionally been reluctant to allow its cultural treasures out of the country, the Benaki has been a pioneer of cultural exchange. When Fairfax Media spoke to Delivorrias, he was busy finalising arrangements for a Byzantine exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington.
He says Melbourne's venue and resources presented a unique opportunity.
''It is not only the economic aspect of this project that is important for the Benaki, but the idea of culture being constantly in contact with other countries,'' he says.
''I belong to those who believe that creations of art need to travel, to breathe a different air.
''This is what museums today need to do,'' Delivorrias says.
Called Gods, Myths and Mortals, the main Melbourne exhibition will include some of the best pieces from the Benaki's permanent exhibition, including ancient pottery, sculptures, statues, weaponry, Cycladic, Minoan figurines, Mycenaean jewellery, Byzantine icons and manuscripts and regional costumes.
The Benaki treasures will add significant gravitas to the under-utilised Hellenic Museum, founded in 2008 by Melbourne's prominent Stamoulis family.
''It's the most representative collection that they have been able to put together that reflects the spectrum of Greek civilisation,'' says Tatoulis. ''There are a number of pieces that we specifically wanted that are additional to the collection that came in 2005. And this is the first time such a major collection has left Greece for such a long period of time.''
Tatoulis says annual shows will be curated for the Hellenic Museum. He is particularly excited about an Islamic art exhibition planned for 2015. ''The Benaki's Islamic collection has never travelled. It is one of the best private collections in the Western world.''
One of Greece's must-see museums, the Benaki was founded in 1930 by avid collector Antonis Benakis, who was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, where his patriot father, Emmanouil, made his fortune in the cotton trade before returning to Greece to support national causes, serving briefly as a cabinet minister. A hands-on benefactor, Antonis Benakis continued to enrich the collection he gifted to the state, along with the family's neoclassical mansion that houses the main museum. During the Nazi occupation of Athens, he reportedly spent several days packing the collections for safe hiding.
The Benaki Museum today also includes a dedicated museum of Islamic art, a modern art museum and cultural centre and smaller museums and annexes housing extensive photographic and historical archives. The Benaki recently opened an annexe in the former home of artist Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, covering the period between the two world wars, and there are plans for a museum for its antique toy collection.
Melbourne's Hellenic Museum was the vision of Spiros Stamoulis, who died the year before the museum opened and personified the migrant dream, building a soft-drink empire, as well as property and media portfolios that put the family on Australia's rich list.
His property developer son, Harry Stamoulis, has described the Benaki agreement as a ''cultural coup'' that will provide a major cultural, artistic and educational resource to Melbourne.
hellenic.org.au

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-travelling-treasure-trove-from-the-benaki-museum-20140109-30je1.html#ixzz2q2W6dd7R